Meyer Lansky
Meyer Lansky was a Russian-born Jewish mobster. He was arguably the biggest mob boss of the 20th century. Early life Born Maier Suchowjansky in Grodno, Russia. Immigrated to the U.S. at age nine. His family settled in New York's immigrant slums. By the time he was 27, young Maier had five arrests on his record, on charges ranging from disorderly conduct to suspicion of murder, but he was never convicted. He was mentored by Jewish mobster Arnold Rothstein. Rise to Power It was during the 1920’s that Lansky became a pal and partner of Bugsy Siegel. The two became a formidable pair, first as hired gunmen for Legs Diamond, soon as leaders of their own gang, called the 'Bugs and Meyer Mob.' Their specialty was protecting liquor in transit from hijackers to East Coast gangs. They were good at it, and when an alliance called the Eastern Syndicate was formed to coordinate rum-running Lansky and Siegel were named to the board. Lansky was put in charge of handling the syndicate's finances. By the early 1930’s, the Eastern syndicate began to form a loose alliance with other regional mobs. Thus was the national syndicate born. Each gang retained its own identity and pursued its own activities, with the federation coming together occasionally to discuss matters of common interest. Final decisions rested with individual gang leaders, with one acting as federation chairman. The first chairman was Lucky Luciano, head of the Mafia in the East. During World War 2, Lansky played a part in an incredible alliance between the underworld and the U.S. Navy . . . Apparently, the Navy decided East Coast piers could be protected from sabotage only with the aid of the Mafia. It may have been Lansky, through his political contacts, who arranged the criminal indictment and subsequent imprisonment of Luciano. It was Luciano's imprisonment and ultimate deportation that smoothed Lansky's further advancement in organized crime. Luciano was deported in 1946, and for his cooperation in Operation Underworld, he was allowed to live freely as long as he never returned to America. Luciano later revealed his thoughts on Lansky’s rise to power after his deportation: “Lansky held the purse strings, too; he was the treasurer and he was really tryin' to be the boss of everythin'. He was so hungry for power behind the scenes he'd kiss anybody's ass and do anythin' he had to do so that in the end, he—Meyer Lansky, my old partner and a Jew—would wind up the real boss of bosses of all the Italians and the Jews—and without a single fuckin' vote on the crime syndicate council. I never really knew what it meant when we was kids and I used to call him the Genius. But at the age of sixty-four, I finally got wise." According to Luciano, it was Lansky himself who suggested that the newly-assembled national crime syndicate dub itself "the Union Siciliano"—a sobriquet which gave the criminal underworld a decidedly "Sicilian" imagery. Lansky's role in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS)-Naval Intelligence operations during World War II and his work on behalf of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in handling Batista may account for the fact that Lansky seldom faced harassment from the federal authorities. He even acted as FDR’s ambassador to Cuba on occasion.